Quizlet- Moonwalk

Here is the link to this week's vocabulary word practice. 

Quizlet- Moonwalk

Journal #6

Journal #6

            IPads are such a unique tool.  I have had the opportunity to explore the device over the past few weeks.  It appears that there are countless free apps geared towards preschool aged children for practicing colors, shapes, letters, etc.  I have had some difficulty finding apps that are relevant for use with my fourth graders.  I am still searching for a free app that allows teachers (or students) to enter vocabulary words and definitions to practice terminology.  However, I am also hopeful that there will be less emphasis on rote memorization in the next few years. 

            Through our iPad session in class, I downloaded an app called ShowMe.  I was able to use the app the next day.  I had two absent students and I introduced a new math skill.  So, I used the app to do a short mini-lesson and demonstrate a few practice problems.  The students were able to use the internet to see my ShowMe presentation.  The parents of both students replied that it was extremely helpful for them, and the students liked watching a video instead of reading the textbook to try to figure out how to complete the homework they missed. 

Journal #5

          This class is arranged in a way that allows me to apply what I am learning to my current classroom and curriculum.  The past two weeks I have used and explored tools that have improved my teaching.  Currently, I am having students create podcasts in math to post on the web for students to refer to when completing assignments or for review.  Additionally, I am transferring and updating some old PowerPoints to Prezis.  The benefits of Prezis being available on the web instead of saving a file to a certain location and the ease of incorporating pictures and videos is enough support for me to convert to this tool.

            I was even presented with a few opportunities to share these resources with other teachers.  I am finding that I am not the only one who had not heard of a Prezi.  Now, others in my building are exploring the tool as well. 

Journal #4

            Since my last entry, we visited the Challenger Learning Center at Heartland during a class session.  The experience that the center creates for students who visit is extremely interactive and lifelike.  Throughout the experience, I could not help but think of all the benefits for simulations similar to the missions. 

            It is important to teach content as well as how it can be useful in their current and future lives.  As a student, I always loved math.  It was by far my favorite subject.  However, I stopped enjoying it when I began taking courses such as calculus and trigonometry.  My problem with the content was not that I did not understand how to solve the problems.  Instead, my problem was that I did not understand why it would be useful.  It was never presented in a lifelike way. 

Without the use of technology, I am able to create many lifelike experiences for my students.  For example, in science we give group assignments in which job assignments are given.  We use language such as “I hypothesize” when making predictions.  I refer to my students as “scientists”.  If money was more of a surplus, we would wear lab jackets each day.  Nonetheless, there is so much that can be done by using technology to create simulations.  After all, how could we be more lifelike?  We live in a world where technology surrounds us.  I can’t wait to find more ways to use it! 

Journal #3

The first few chapters of Disrupting Class have resonated with me as a result of some current experiences in my own school as well as connections to other aspects of this class.  Ever since I viewed the video remix which showed teachers “flipping their classrooms”, I have been interested in the concept.  It seems that Mr. Alvera’s classroom, as described in Disrupting Class, needs to be flipped.  Poor Rob just needed a hands-on approach, instead of a lecture, to understand the concept. 

In my fourth grade classroom, we just finished a science topic on Forces and Motion.  We explored concepts and vocabulary such as velocity, gravity, types of simple machines, and potential and kinetic energy.  When discussing the content with an assistant who works at the junior-high, she informed me that the content is the same as what is taught in 8^th grade.  The difference is that the material is taught to my 4^th graders with a much more interactive and exploratory approach.  It is through such activities that keep my students intrinsically motivated to learn the information. 

I must admit that keeping my students intrinsically motivated is not always as easy as the first chapter in science.  I believe some content areas and specific content lends itself to being fun and enjoyable whereas others do not.  Thinking forward, this is what I hope to find some more solutions for during this course.  How do I keep this motivation of all students when they are all motivated by different things and have different likes and dislikes? 

Journal #2

         Thinking back, over the past few weeks, I am proud of the accomplishments I have made in my transition to become more technologically savvy.  I was a bit worried when I realized the Video Remix was due, and we had not discussed the process of finding videos and editing them in class.  A Video Remix seemed like a project only technology specialists would be able to do without assistance.  

I quickly remembered the “community questions” section of the course wiki in which I could connect to my classmates.  Sarah shared some useful information for a program to download and use to complete the Remix.  From there, I was able to use a basic search engine to leap over other small hurdles.  For instance, I had difficulty saving the videos I wanted to use in my Remix.  Through a basic search, I determined I needed to install an add-on.   

A teaching online support team, as I read about in the HETL resource, makes perfect sense when using technology.  It was nice to have some parts of a support team over the past few weeks. 

As I look to the future, I would like to develop a support team in my building.  Therefore, I am beginning to create a coaching session with teachers new to interactive white board technology.  This project will be for my first extra assignment.  I plan to continue to use the resources available to me in order to make a better support team for the staff in my building. 

Emerging Technologies Journal Entry 1

        Originally, I enrolled in C&I 489 as an elective to meet my desire to develop as an effective 21st century instructor and explore up and coming technologies that could be used in my classroom.  As I reflect on my original intentions, I can tell that my purpose is going to need to change slightly in order to successfully complete the given tasks that this course requires and, of course, learn. 

      To begin with, a new goal of mine is to become comfortable with the current technologies used within this course.  For example, reading an online version of a text is a new challenge for me.  My first idea when I realized that there were approximately 80 pages of text to read via a PDF file was to print the pages and read it and take notes like I would with a regular textbook.  I decided that I would learn more if I explored some of the tools I was reading about, such as note-taking capabilities and research tools, and read the text as it was intended as an electronic read. 
      
       As far as my feelings toward the course, I am excited to meet both my original and current goals as indicated above.  However, I am nervous and a bit intimidated by all the new technological terms and information that I have been exposed to over the past few weeks.  I did not realize I was such a laggard is so many areas!  From our class discussions about “the cloud”, easily hacking iPhones, terabytes, and server farms I now know I have a lot of research to do in order to meet those goals.